Writing and practitioner inquiry: Thinking relationally English Teaching: Practice and Critique 46

ABSTRACT: Alan Reid’s (2004) article, Towards a culture of inquiry, constructed a sharply focused challenge to the wave of neo-conservative educational research and policy-making sweeping the Western world at the time. In contrast to the familiar deficit constructions of a teaching profession needing injections of knowledge, Reid envisions teachers as reflexive “inquirers into professional practice who question their routine practices and assumptions. ” His vision appreciates the value and possibilities of practitioner inquiry for enhancing an individual’s knowledge and professional learning, while also generating knowledge and capacity for professional communities. This article investigates and critiques some possibilities of practitioner inquiry, especially forms of inquiry involving professional writing. A close study is made of texts written as part of a small practitioner inquiry project undertaken by English-literature teachers in a school in Melbourne. The writing of the texts in this project can be seen as both (1) reflective acts, articulating or clarifying current or past understandings of teachers and researchers and also (2) performative acts, allowing the “inquirers ” to see beyond the immediate context of their teaching and research and to “think relationally ’ about the current and future possibilities of their professional practice